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'We Happy Few' has a trippy PSVR teaser
We Happy Few is just around the corner after years of waiting, but you don't have to wait until August 10th to get a feel for its drug-filled dystopia if you have a PlayStation VR headset. Compulsion games has released a free PSVR-only side story, Uncle Jack Live VR, that turns you into a guest producer for its namesake broadcaster and propagandist. You're supposed to pick the 'right' news stories for Jack as he encourages people to keep taking the mind-altering Joy drug, all the while fighting an outbreak of Downers (i.e. normal people) at the broadcast center.
We Happy Few's dystopia is held together by drugs and denial
We Happy Few has come to fruition in a unique way. Compulsion Games first captured attentions in 2015 with its creepy, atmospheric trailers, also launching a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund continued development of its dystopian title. The following year, the game launched on early access programs for both the PC and Xbox One. It was a procedurally generated, roguelike survival game, intended to be relatively short and replayable. Only, the world Compulsion had built was too alluring. The people wanted more, being particularly fond of the game's quirky characters and the player's interactions with them. And so We Happy Few has evolved over time to become a substantial story-driven adventure. At launch on August 10th, the game will follow three very different playable characters that, for one reason or another, don't fit in with their ever-jolly neighbors.
Microsoft bought five studios to fix its Xbox game problem
It's no secret that Microsoft's lack of exclusive games is partially to blame for the Xbox One lagging behind the PS4. To rectify this, the company's gone on a bit of a shopping spree, acquiring five studios under its Microsoft Studios umbrella. Four of these are existing outfits: Undead Labs (State of Decay), Playground Games (Forza Horizon), Ninja Theory (Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice) and Compulsion Games (We Happy Few). The fifth is an all-new studio called The Initiative headed by Darrell Gallagher, the former chief of Crystal Dynamics who spearheaded the Tomb Raider reboot and joined Microsoft back in April.
Survival game ’We Happy Few’ is delayed until summer
We've been excited about We Happy Few, the paranoia-fueled horror survival game set in a small English town, for awhile now. But it looks like we're going to have to wait a bit longer to play it. While the game was originally scheduled to be released in April 2018, it's been pushed back to sometimes this summer.
How 'We Happy Few' plans to avoid the pitfalls of 'No Man's Sky'
The 1960s dystopia of We Happy Few will hit Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on April 13th, 2018, thanks to Compulsion Games and Gearbox, the studio best known for Borderlands. You're not hallucinating -- We Happy Few did already come to Xbox One and Steam as an early-access game, but now it's ready for prime time. The full experience, priced at $60 and featuring a rich storyline starring three separate characters, will be ready to roll next spring. That's all fine and dandy, but We Happy Few's joyous release-date news hides a deeper development story. Compulsion has followed a long, winding road to April 2018, and the first major twist in that path came early in the development process.
Survival horror game 'We Happy Few' is becoming a movie
Video game movies tend to struggle in part because of their stories. What sounds good for an adventure or first-person shooter can fall flat when you're asked to construct a cinematic narrative around it. However, you might get something better this time around. Variety has learned that We Happy Few, Compulsion Games' paranoia-fueled tale of an English town gone terribly wrong, is becoming a movie. The company behind the Pitch Perfect movies, Gold Circle Entertainment, is working with dj2 Entertainment (also working on the Sleeping Dogs movie) to make it a reality.
Survival in 'We Happy Few' starts next week
We Happy Few was one of my coworker Jess Conditt's favorite games from E3 this year, and for good reason: its alt-history, drug-and-paranoia fueled take on a dystopia is unlike anything we've ever seen. But how did it all begin? With a question, according to an Xbox Wire post by developer Compulsion Games' Sam Abbott. The team was trying to figure out how to make a bigger game than its first (Contrast, which made its debut with the PlayStation 4) but wanted to keep its staff size from ballooning. That's why Compulsion turned to procedural generation -- akin to No Man's Sky -- for its 1964 English city.
Drugs and dystopia in 1960s England: 'We Happy Few' hits Kickstarter
We Happy Few takes place in 1964 in the isolated English town of Wellington Wells. On the surface, it's an ideal place, filled with smiling residents and all the conveniences of retro-modern technology. But Wellington Wells hides a dark and terrifying secret: During the German occupation of World War II, the citizens had to do something so awful that they devised a drug to make them forget their actions and guilt. The drug, Joy, makes the Wellies friendly and complacent, unless they encounter someone who isn't dosing; that's when they turn violent and beat any "Downers" into submission (or death). The town is on the brink of collapse and its residents are starving, but everyone keeps on smiling -- or else.
